


the heart will mend

by orphan_account



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Child Abuse, but its mainly moritz, children are playing pirates and its cute i swear, theres pretty much all the characters, with a side of others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 02:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10844181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: four times moritz was in the forest and the one time he wasnt





	the heart will mend

“Listen, Captain Moritz,” First Mate Ilse leans over to Moritz, cupping a hand over her mouth so that no one else can hear their conversation. “Mean old Captain Melchi has Princess Wendla on his ship and it’s too dangerous to go after her!”

Moritz waves his first mate away with his left hand. His right hand is clutching firmly at the sword at his side. “That’s cowards talk, Ilse! We must go after her because she is a lady and she won’t be any use to Captain Melchi and if he gets bored of her, he might make her walk the plank.”

_Walk the plank_ is the last thing any good pirate wants to hear, especially if it’s about a nice princess. Ilse’s eyes grow wide and scared and she cups her hands to her mouth. She’s about to answer when the bushes around them rustle and Moritz quickly jumps into action. He pulls his sword out of his belt, and Ilse quickly copies his movement. “Who’s there?” Moritz asks tentatively. He doesn’t get a response, so he jabs his sword into the nearest bush and waits for a response. When he is greeted with nothing but silence, he decides that whatever was there, it wasn’t Captain Melchi.

Moritz waves his first mate closer and drops his voice to a whisper. “We should try and find where Captain Melchi’s hiding the princess.”

Ilse gives him a nod in response, so she yanks down her eyepatch off her forehead and pokes Moritz in the back. “Ready when you are, Captain.”

The forest casts cold, glaring shadows onto their path and a few times Ilse whimpers and grabs a fistful of her captain’s shirt. But she’s a fearless pirate, so after a while she calms down and takes out her sword to defend herself. She looks down and her eyes instantly light up. She pokes Moritz again to get him to stop and then points to the ground.

“Look, footprints.”

Moritz bends down and studies the markings for a while. A tiny imprint that says 12 brings a smile to his lips. Melchi is a size 12. “Yep, we’re on his trail, alright.”

They walk for a little while longer until they notice that the dust on the ground had been scuffed. ‘Maybe Princess Wendla fought against Captain Melchi,” Ilse offers helpfully. Moritz nods slowly and then looks around. “Maybe they’re close by.”

He takes a deep breath but is quickly stopped by his first mate, who knew exactly what he was doing. “Don’t. What if Captain Melchi hears?”

“It’s fine, Ilse,” Moritz soothes, and then closes his eyes and musters up all his breath to yell. “Princess Wendla!! Where are you?”

A small voice answers. “I’m here! Oh, quick, come before Captain Melchi gets to me again!”

Ilse and Moritz share a look and then they hurry towards her voice. When they reach her, she is tied to a tree. Her big floral dress was dirty and the beaded necklaces that she had been wearing were nowhere to be found. “Quick! First mate Ilse, go untie her!” Moritz orders. Ilse nods and darts around the tree and quickly untie her. Princess Wendla runs into Captain Moritz’s arms.

“Thank you very much for saving me. I’ll be sure to repay your kindness in cookies, good sir.”

“Not so fast, Captain Moritz.”

They all turn and watch fearfully as Captain Melchi appears through the trees. His golden-brown curls peek out from his large pirate’s hat. “Princess Wendla is _my_ maiden, fair and square.”

Captain Moritz gives a short laugh. He pulls his sword out and points it towards Captain Melchi. “We’ll see about that!”

Captain Melchi grins wickedly – although not too wickedly; it was hard to take him seriously with his two front teeth missing – and pulls out his own sword. “If that’s how we’ll settle this, so be it!”

There’s silence for a solid five minutes while Captain Melchi and Captain Moritz hit each other’s swords. Occasionally Princess Wendla or Ilse will cheer Moritz’s name, but other than that its quiet until Captain Moritz finally tires Captain Melchi out. The mean old pirate stops. “Fine, you can take the princess. I’ll find another one in the next village!”

Moritz offers his hand to Princess Wendla, who giggles and takes it. Captain Moritz takes off his pirate’s hat and quickly ruffles up his short tufts of hair (he recently had lice and his mama had to cut it all off) to look tough. Princess Wendla stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his cheek.

“Thank you for saving me, Captain Moritz.”

-

“Moritz, how long are we going to walk for?” Melchior complains loudly, twigs snapping under his feet. Moritz rolls his eyes. God, Melchi could be so impatient sometimes.

Moritz looks over his shoulder and laughs at his friend who is lagging behind. Melchior is panting and stops to take off his jacket, but instantly shudders and places it back on his shoulders. It certainly was troublesome to hike up the highest hill in the forest, and maybe it wasn’t worth it just to see a sunrise, but neither really cared that much (well, maybe Melchior did a little bit).

Melchior had listened to Moritz ramble on about this sunset for weeks on end, and only yesterday had he finally ordered Moritz to take him. Moritz still wasn’t sure if Melchior really cared about the sunset that much, but hey, at least he wasn’t lonely anymore.

“Jesus, you do this every morning?” Melchi huffs, pausing and leaning over to catch his breath. Moritz shrugs. He shoves his hands in the pockets and waits for Melchi to walk again. “What are you doing up at this hour, anyway? It’s too early for anyone to be awake. Why the hell are you so eager to haul your ass to this mountain?”

God, Melchi was so obnoxious. Just because he turned ten last week he thinks he _so_ much superior.

“I don’t know. I woke up early one morning and decided to go for a walk,” Moritz answers after a second of thinking. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell his friend it was because his father had spent the entire night switching between screaming and long periods of ignoring the boy after he had accidentally smashed a coffee cup and just wanted to get out of that house so bad.

Melchi finally catches up and frowns at the deeply troubled expression on his best friend’s face. He gently nudges Moritz’s shoulder and gives a small smile, to which Moritz relaxes and returns. Melchior rubs his arms in a bid to warm himself up.

“Come on, lets hurry and get there so we don’t miss out,” He grins and charges up the hill in a burst of energy. Moritz lets out a soft sigh and runs after him.

The two end up sitting at the top of the hill for a long while before any sun can be seen, but neither of them mind because it’s just so damn nice up there. “Y’know,” Melchi begins and leans back. “If this isn’t a really good sunrise you owe me big time.”

Moritz laughs and wraps his arms around his knees. “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

The sun begins to peer up from behind the distant, rolling hills. It’s a warm orange at first, with the silhouette of the clouds beginning to grow brighter. Moritz quickly looks to Melchior and watches as Melchior’s face grows livelier as the seconds roll by. The sun is now almost all the way over the hills. It’s chased the deep blue of night away and now its replaced with a soft baby pink.

“It’s… beautiful,” Melchi seems to be at a loss for words and he’s just gaping like a moron. Moritz shuffles over so that he’s closer.

“Was it worth the walk?” He asks smugly. Melchi looks over and pokes his tongue out at him.

“Yes.”

The two laugh and watch as the morning flows by.

-

“Whose idea was it to bring a frisbee instead of an actual ball like we had planned?” Hanschen bitches loudly, pulling his hands out of the bush he knelt next to. From somewhere to his left Otto lifts his head and glares at the blonde boy. “Shut up Hanschen, I got my ball taken off me last week, remember?”

Georg stands up and brushes the dirt off his pants and then wipes the lens of his glasses on his shirt. “Both of you be quiet,” He answers with a frown. “It was Ernst’s idea to bring the frisbee, not Otto’s.”

_That_ stops Hanschen’s complaining.

Moritz stands, as does Ernst. The smallest boy of them all winces, his eyes filling with tears. “I’m sorry, I thought that uses my sisters frisbee would be better than not having anything at all,” He starts to explain, but his voice is choked with tears. Ernst Robel is such a sweet, sensitive soul. Moritz pats his back comfortingly. “Don’t worry. We’ll find it,” Moritz smiles, and Ernst smiles back.

Otto heaves a sigh and goes back to searching for the frisbee. “Seriously, how could we lose this? It’s bright yellow.”

Georg snorts. “Only a bunch on geniuses like you could do something as stupid as that.”

Hanschen, without lifting his head, throws a rock back and manages to hit Georg directly in the chest. “Don’t be a smartass. You were playing with it too.” Georg’s only response is a string of incoherent whines and finally bending back down to search again.

Melchior shakes his head and groans. “We won’t ever find it. Ernst, if it’s any consolation I can buy you another one.”

Moritz looks over to Hanschen as he mimics Melchior in a childish way before scoffing and reaching his hands into the bush again. After a moment, he pauses and then pulls out the yellow frisbee. “Uh, I think I found it.”

Ernst looks over with a wide, hopeful smile and bounces over to Hanschen. “Thanks Hanschen!” He beams, holding the frisbee to his chest.

-

“Moritz, listen,” Martha begins gently, toying with the hem of her dress. “I really can’t talk. What if someone hears?”

Moritz laughs softly and waves his arms about. He shoots her a stupid smile. “Yeah? Who’s going to hear us? We’re in the middle of the freaking forest.”

Martha looks around as if making sure his words were true before she visibly relaxes. She’s now tugging on the end of her braid and flicking it behind her shoulder every so often. Her dark, unreadable eyes dart from side to side and don’t stop long enough to focus on anything. It makes Moritz dizzy just watching her. He holds out his hands, and the girl shyly puts hers in his. She opens her mouth to speak, but then stops.

The boy steps closer and lowers his head. “It’s okay. I know what’s going on,” He whispers, and Martha quickly looks up in fright. She looks scared all of a sudden; scared like a cornered animal. “No, you don’t.”

Moritz stares into her eyes and pulls up his sleeves, and Martha’s eyes widen at the bruises and cuts that trail up his pale skin. Okay. Maybe he does understand something. Her fingers brush against the marks and Moritz responds by wincing in pain. Martha instantly draws her hands back and flattens her dress.

“Moritz, we really can’t. We have to go back to the church group- “

The boy rolls down his sleeves again and breathes out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Martha looks back to him with uncertainty. Then, without warning, she tugs down the collar of her dress and exposes the skin around her breasts. Much like his arms, her chest is covered in dark purple bruises and Moritz can’t breathe properly for a moment.

“There’s, uhm, there’s some more on my thighs,” Martha adds quietly and Moritz has a hard time hearing it. Martha crosses her arms against her chest and watches him closely in that same, scared way. He notices that he’s shaking a little bit despite the summer heat. She opens and closes her mouth a few times as she tries to find her voice again.

“You aren’t- you aren’t going to tell anyone, are you?” Her voice is now nothing more than a breath, but to Moritz, it’s like she’s screaming. He falters, before nodding hesitatingly.

The two don’t speak for a while. The silence is awkward and cold, but neither make an attempt to leave. Moritz looks up to Martha, who is still standing rigid in the middle of the clearing holding herself and trying to keep her chin held high and nods his head.

“Martha, I’m sorry,” He swallows the lump in his throat and pulls her in for a hug. Martha melts into his arms. It’s uncomfortable; his shoulders are ramming into her side and she’s standing on his foot, but it’s what they both needed.

-

Ilse’s eyes are brimming with tears and her shoulders shake with her silent crying. Wendla’s fist that clutches a bunch of flowers is turning white. Ernst and Martha are crying. Melchior barely as it together, and neither Otto nor Georg find it easy to breathe.

Hanschen busies himself with shuffling the crudely made cross into the ground over and over. If he stops he fears he might cry.

“I can’t believe his dad. Who can just disown their son like that?” Ilse chokes out.

Melchior’s head is spinning and he wants to answer, but every time he tries his heart plummets into his stomach and his throat burns. Wendla’s lips are quivering, but she won’t let herself cry.

“He probably hates it in that graveyard with all those dead people,” Ilse continues, now sobbing uncontrollably. “He can’t be in a graveyard with dead people.”

Hanschen finally stands up and steps back into the crowd. Ernst leans into him for support. Martha’s hands fall uselessly to her side and she stares at the ground and just _cries_.

“He’s…” Ilse finally breaks and she almost falls to the ground, but she holds herself up. Wendla follows her and soon the whole group is crying. No one stops and everyone clings to each other because their friend just died and _no one cares_.

The cross at the base of the tree simply says _MORITZ_ in big white letters, and perhaps that is the loneliest part of it all.


End file.
